THE SHOOTING MONTH
VOLUME 14 NUMBER 19
JANUARY 23, 1986
Gramm-Rudman budget-balancing bill has federal money-spenders worried
A federal law designed to balance the U.S. budget promises to be 1986's newest four-letter word in Indian Country and elsewhere
The Gramm-Rudman bill, which became law when President Reagan signed it December 12, demands that the U.S. stop spending money it doesn't have. Its goal is to cause a balanced budget by 1991, beginning with FY86 cutbacks totalling $11.7 billion.
The law says programs facing cuts -- which is everything the federal government funds, except the Public Health Service, Medicare and Social Security (and elected officials' salaries, from what we understand) - will learn what they are February 1, and be expected to implement them by March 1.
Early estimates are that everyone will be asked to trim at least 4.3% from what's left of FY86's appropriations,
then prepare for deeper cuts in the next few years until the budget is balanced
That percentage may be small, but 4.3% from the BIA's FY86 request of $927,417,000 is $39,878,931 due to be taken from Indian programs and administration, for example.
Here on the Flathead, some Tribal and BIA administrators are worried on two counts: one, how badly the cuts (Continues on page two)
Buffalo Rapids 2 and 4 proposed for development
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Two Tribal members hope to convince the Council next month that it's an all-around good idea to dam the lower Flathead River at two places to generate electricity.
Fred Houle, Jr., and Wally Weivoda, officers of the newly created Pondera Hydro, Inc., say they plan to meet with the Tribal Council late next month to discuss establishing small hydroelectric plants at Buffalo Rapids 2 and 4 (see the map on page three).
Pondera Hydro proposes to do all the work, including the financing, then share the profits with the Tribes, which own the affected land and water, seven or eight years down the road, Houle said.
According to a December 5 report written by Pondera Hydro, "preliminary benefits" of the project outnumber the adverse effects 2-to-l. Benefits outlined included substantial revenue for the Tribes which could decrease or eliminate dependence on federal funds; protection of Tribal
water rights; employment opportunities; enhancement of fisheries; and the creation of "villa" sites around the reservoir that would be created.
Among the adverse effects was the loss of land - culture sites, riparian habitat and farming and ranching property -- due to the flooding that would occur.
Houle is quick to point out that while about 7,000 acres of ground stood to be flooded by the two proposed dams, the land was already in bad shape because of overgrazing of cattle and knapweed infestation The acreage is equal to only about 1/4 of the primitive Mill Pocket area in the northwest corner of the Reservation, he said.
Reaction to the plan, news of which "leaked to the press" prematurely before the Council could be formally informed, Houle said, has been negative The Flathead Culture Committee has given a "thumbs down" to the idea Houle acknowledged, due to the (Concludes on page three)